The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-08-12
ERlsco,s oAINgsE ouARreRs.
What May BE seen in the Abode OF
10000 Celesttals.

10000 Celesttais.
One marked feature OF San Francis.
co Of es. acial interest to eastern visit
ors is the Chinese quarter. says q let
ter to The Beltimore AmericGn. There
are said to be 500 600 people in the
city, of whom about $4,000 are China
men. The number, owing to the re-
strictiye legislation hy congress, is
steadily diminishing and the citizens
look forward hopefully ~ the time
when the Chinese will cease TO be
disturbing factor in their population
and industries. Under the care of an
experienced guide, acquainted with the
language and people, we made an eve
ming visit to Chinatown. We entered
several ioss-houses, where were all the
paraphernalia of heather worship.
These places are source Of revnue
and the privilege of keeping them, IT is
said, is sold to the highest bidder.
Here are the altars, incense, the burn
ing lamps, the images, and the
worshipers. but in them all we saw no
evidence of reverence or of religious
feeling. Some of these temples are
decorated with elegant woods, carv-
ings, screens, bronzes, images. and
hangings Of golden embroideries. One
place of interest we visited was a ban
quet hall which. we were told, was the
Chinese Delmonico. Here dinners are
given by the wealthy merchants and
others to their friends or distinguished
visitors. A banquet seemed Just TO
have ended. Musicians making hor-
rid din, singing women with the most
unmusical voices. young girls and men
gambling with dominoes or other de-
vices, are in various parts of the rooms.
A lordly Chinaman reclines upon
richly upholstered ch2ir and smokes
his fragrant cigar with an evident air
Of self-esteem and self-satisfation. In
one corner is a luxurious couch, on
which reclines two elegently-
Chinese. On the finger OF one sparkles
large and exceedingly brilliant dia-
mond. Between them lamp. Each has
the opium pipe, and one is in the very act
of preparing to smoke the drug which,
while 1t yields delicious unconscious
ness, saps the very foundation Of health
and moral character. We partake Of
a cup of fragrant tea and sweetmeats,
for which we pay round price (the
Chinese know how to charge), and 60
on our way. Two features of Chinese
life are patent to us as we walk the
streets. First, the woman slavery, and
second the gambling hells. Under the
stars and stripes a slavery worse than
that which held the southern negroes
exists in San Francisco. Nor is II un-
known to the authorities. Women,
even girls of tenderest age. arc brought
from China, bought as slaves, held as
slaves guarded as slaves and sold for
immoral purposes as slaves. Walking
along the streets, one sees them leek
ing out of little grated windows, the
victims of mans lust and avarfce.
Visiting the mission Of the Methodist
Episcopal church on Sunday, we saw
at the services nineteen wcsnen and
girls who had been rescued from this
slavery, and are sheltered, educated,
and Christianized BY the missionary
tand his assistants. AS we passed
through a narrow street our guide
called attention to men standing guard.
These were sentinels watching at the
doors Of gambling dens, ready to give
warning at the moment of danger. The
doors Gre iron-clad, and on inspecting
several we discovered the marks OF she
sledge- hammer, where on previous
occasions the police had broken in. La
one square, on the right and on
the left there must have been
two dozen such places, and per-
haps ais many pitiful women slaves
peering out Of their little grated wind
ows. These things are all known to
the authorities. Their openness= more
than iustifes the report that hash
money is paid to the police, One can
not but conclude that the Chinese are
an undesirable population, not merely,
as the average Californian will tell You,
because he works more cheaply than
the American, sends his money out Of
the country and brings leprosY in, but.
more than all, he is a moral leper,
end 4enlrllntin0. and no COM
munity can harbor him and daily SEQ
and tolerate his vices without conta-
friOn ss8H